HUD-2008-09-Building Energy Star Qualified Homes

Building ENERGY STAR New Homes and Incorporating Energy Efficiency and Green Building Practices into HOME-Funded Affordable Housing, provides technical and operational guidance to HOME participating jurisdictions (PJs), community housing development organizations (CHDOs), and subrecipients to help them develop ENERGY STAR qualified homes. This guidebook discusses the benefits of improved energy efficiency in housing; describes what the ENERGY STAR qualified home label means; describes what a PJ and its local development partners must do to meet the ENERGY STAR standards; and identifies other actions that PJ can take to improve building performance in affordable housing. Generally, PJs can achieve ENERGY STAR standards only with new construction activities; this guidebook also describes how to incorporate energy efficiency into rehabilitation activities and presents green building practices that may be incorporated into affordable housing activities.

This guidebook will benefit state and local PJs and their program partners (such as community housing development organizations, state recipients, and subrecipients) that are interested in helping low-income beneficiaries of their programs reduce housing energy costs; and improving the affordable housing stock that they develop. Program staff of these organizations who administer HOME Program activities will be able to use the information in this guide to initiate or improve their energy efficiency initiatives in their HOME-assisted housing. The guidebook offers information for communities experienced with incorporating energy efficiency measures, as well as for communities that have limited experience.